It's Black Friday in the USA and that means millions of people are out spending money and hopefully many of you retail store owners are bringing in some good sales. Which, by the way, we hope you are reading this from your cell phone or tablet while out on the sales floor.
Speaking of cell phones and tablets, here are a few good ideas you should think about over the next week.
#1.
This one's for iPad users. Get yourself a nice photo frame stand that the iPad can sit in. A clear plastic frame will work, too. Load the iPad with some photos of items you have in stock. On Windows, you can easily load photos as if the iPad is a camera by using the standard iConnect-to-everything-iRelated-cable. On a Mac, you can use the iPhoto program to load and organize your photos.
Once your photos are loaded, place the iPad in the stand and put it on your take-in counter or another high traffic area of your store. This will give customers something to look at while they are waiting for you. The iPad is still rare enough to spark an interest in looking at it and touching it. Be prepared to answer questions about it.
#2
Don't have an iPad? Here's a good way to re-purpose that old computer and that 17" flat screen you recently replaced with the 32" screen.
Carve out a space somewhere near your take-in counter for the flat screen and run the cables wherever needed to permanently hide the old computer. Take some photos of items in your store (perhaps even people) and load them into the computer as a screen saver. Feel free to add some images in there as commercials or announcements of upcoming sales or events.
Make sure you include an announcement saying "Be sure to Like us on Facebook" or "Sign up on our website to receive special discounts via email for your birthday."
#3
Since the iPad carries a natural curiosity with it right now, many people simply want to look at it. While the opportunity is available, take advantage of this. Ana alternative to placing the iPad at a high traffic spot in your store, you could use it inside one of your display cases.
Load photos the jewelry that's inside the same display case. Just make sure the photos are very large, very *clear* images of the jewelry. You want the customer to be drawn in by the iPad first, then the photo quality and then they should see the real item in the showcase. They might have missed the real item if you didn't take those extra steps to draw attention to it. You could do the same in your front window.
#4
The last thought for today is to simply remind you that there are location-based services like Foursquare, Facebook Places, Yelp, Whrrl and WeReward that all allow some type of check-in based special. Talk to one of your tech-savvy employees, your children or call your webmaster to help you get set up on each.
These LBS' each have a different following of tech-addicted junkies. You can attract the attention of that crowd by simply putting one of the logos in your window or front door.
If you are totally clueless about this, just reply to this email with a question and we'll lead you to the correct resource, and even previous Nuggets, where this is better explained.
